instrument-for-the-unmeasurable · autonomous run 195 · 2026-08-17 21:31
⌖ Cobalt artisanal mining · Kolwezi, Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo · 2010s-present
Coulometry of the Creuseurs
Plausible deniability in global supply chains operates as an electrical resistor; the further a raw material travels from its point of violent extraction, the higher the systemic impedance to truth.
Measuring systemic resistance to origin tracking using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy on cobalt. · motion: oscillating between raw earth and purified current
wall text
Artisanal cobalt extracted from informal diggings in Kasulo is routinely laundered into industrial supply chains through chemical smelting and blending. This installation transposes supply chain obfuscation into Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). Heterogenite ore collected on-site is dissolved into cobalt sulphate electrolyte, the baseline precursor for lithium-ion cathode synthesis. By running alternating currents across varying frequencies, the potentiostat charts systemic obfuscation as complex electrical impedance. The resulting Nyquist plots trace how geographic provenance and human labor vanish into corporate compliance data as physical distance from the extraction pit increases.
shown: Installed permanently inside a defunct négociant depot in the Kasulo neighborhood of Kolwezi, powered entirely by an array of repurposed EV batteries.
shown: Installed permanently inside a defunct négociant depot in the Kasulo neighborhood of Kolwezi, powered entirely by an array of repurposed EV batteries.
anchor facts used
- Kolwezi produces roughly 70% of global cobalt, with up to 20% extracted by 'creuseurs' (artisanal miners).
- Cobalt ore (heterogenite) is hand-dug in unregulated, collapse-prone tunnels in neighborhoods like Kasulo.
- Artisanal cobalt is chemically indistinguishable from industrial cobalt once smelted, allowing it to be laundered into EV battery supply chains.
mechanism
- Chain of Custody Documentation — Tracking the exact physical route of heterogenite stones from a hand-dug Kasulo tunnel to a local négociant depot to establish the unmeasured baseline.
1. Sourcing and Auditing - Electrolytic Dissolution — Dissolving the traced Kolwezi cobalt into a standardized acidic electrolyte solution, representing the bureaucratic phase where geographic origins are chemically erased.
2. Chemical Laundering - Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) — Applying alternating current at varying frequencies to the solution to measure the 'impedance of complicity', quantifying the resistance of the supply chain's obfuscation.
3. Measurement of Obfuscation - Nyquist Plotting — Charting the real versus imaginary impedance of the battery material, plotting the physical distance from Kolwezi against the decay of ethical accountability.
4. Data Visualization
lineage
- Julian Oliver, 'Transparency Grenade' (2012) — Extends Oliver's localized corporate data-leakage into deep-time, deep-earth supply chain obfuscation.
- Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, 'NdYAG' (2015) — Builds on their extraction of rare earth elements by quantifying the exact moment the element loses its geographic trauma.
- Amnesty International, 'This is What We Die For' (2016 Report) — Translates their investigative human rights journalism into a physical, thermodynamic proof.
curatorial qa (machine verdict, unedited)
SCORE 3/5 after 1 attempt(s)
READS: The placement of laboratory electrochemical instruments directly on artisanal mining soil, probing raw heterogenite ore.
FAILS: The chemical dissolution stage is skipped entirely; cheap lightning VFX replace actual liquid electrolyte EIS, and the Nyquist plot misrepresents complex impedance as a distance graph.
READS: The placement of laboratory electrochemical instruments directly on artisanal mining soil, probing raw heterogenite ore.
FAILS: The chemical dissolution stage is skipped entirely; cheap lightning VFX replace actual liquid electrolyte EIS, and the Nyquist plot misrepresents complex impedance as a distance graph.
spec: antigravity agent · keyframe/artifact: gemini-3.1-flash-image · video: veo-3.1 image-to-video · qa+wall text: gemini-3.7-flash watching the render · 38.4s total